Official Review: Life, Death and Iguanas by Marc Newhouse
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- Latest Review: "Life, Death and Iguanas" by Marc Newhouse
Official Review: Life, Death and Iguanas by Marc Newhouse
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Life, Death and Iguanas" by Marc Newhouse.]
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Life, Death, and Iguanas by Mark Newhouse is a non-fiction memoir about the death of his beloved mother, Frances Newhouse. It’s different from a lot of current memoirs in a few ways. Firstly, the format in which it is written is something he and his husband affectionately refer to as a blook, or, a work that began as a blog and ended up as a book. Due to this, the e-book format is great for this title. Throughout the book, Newhouse has not only included pictures, but also YouTube links to the media he was watching and listening to as he went through this journey. This kind of interactive choice makes the book more personal and serves to bring the memoir into present culture. Secondly, Frances Newhouse died by choice; not by suicide exactly, but VSEAD, or voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, after receiving the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. It’s the portrait of a woman who lived life on her own terms, and who taught her family to do so as well.
The subject, as you might imagine, is fairly controversial. Though the reader starts out knowing the outcome, Newhouse deftly manages to make it less shocking by beginning with a number of anecdotes. He sorts through his own pain, which is a recurring motif at the beginning and the end of the memoir, through the telling of these stories. By better understanding the people his parents were (especially Franny) empathy becomes more prevalent than abhorrence or disapproval.
The central action takes place at his childhood home in Wisconsin, which is called The Acres. It’s fitting that it has its own chapter; his father, Jack, built it for Franny, and it holds as much personality and quirkiness as any of the Newhouses. Writing about his experience helping to lay the floor, Newhouse says, ““As the floorboard was pressed ever tighter, the inevitable tendency was for it to fly up, at great pressure and speed, and come hurling toward us. Thus, Franny and I found ourselves standing on the floorboard, feeling it creep closer and closer, and then Jack would lock the come along. We stood—seemingly valuable only for our weight—as he crept along the floor, and nailed the board in. We were then allowed to get off.”. Taken with the rest of the chapter, this is an apt description of his dad’s entire personality. But he also brims with affection in his descriptions and recalls that his father said that when he was dying, they were to “take him to the vet.” After his death is when the reader first gets insights into Franny’s own curiosity about death; the author states that she made her observations while watching a beloved cat go through the process. Thus, she formed her opinions on death, and thus, Marc began watching iguanas.
The main conflict comes not from whether Franny will die, but how. She has three sons: Eric, Johnny and Marc, and a rather substantial extended family. Everyone but Eric, the only religious one among them, respects her wish to end her life on her own terms. They come to the conclusion that VSEAD is the only answer because they can’t get in trouble for killing her, and they can’t legally or morally make her eat or drink if it isn’t her will to do so. Later, Eric tells Marc that their mother asked if “he’s going through this fast, if she’s doing all this, because I wouldn’t let you and John do anything else. And she wants to know if we’re speaking, or will after she’s gone.”. He replies yes, and her response? “Well I am damned mad.”
The remainder of the book explores her thoughts and emotions in the week and a half before her passing, as well as how the family copes in the year following. No matter your opinion on Franny, or people who choose to engage in any sort of euthanasia, the book is fairly well written and worth a read.
RATING: 3 out of 4. The content was great as well as touching, and the writing isn’t bad, but it could use a good once over by an editor as well as some reorganizing for better chronological flow.
***
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The subject, as you might imagine, is fairly controversial. Though the reader starts out knowing the outcome, Newhouse deftly manages to make it less shocking by beginning with a number of anecdotes. He sorts through his own pain, which is a recurring motif at the beginning and the end of the memoir, through the telling of these stories. By better understanding the people his parents were (especially Franny) empathy becomes more prevalent than abhorrence or disapproval.
The central action takes place at his childhood home in Wisconsin, which is called The Acres. It’s fitting that it has its own chapter; his father, Jack, built it for Franny, and it holds as much personality and quirkiness as any of the Newhouses. Writing about his experience helping to lay the floor, Newhouse says, ““As the floorboard was pressed ever tighter, the inevitable tendency was for it to fly up, at great pressure and speed, and come hurling toward us. Thus, Franny and I found ourselves standing on the floorboard, feeling it creep closer and closer, and then Jack would lock the come along. We stood—seemingly valuable only for our weight—as he crept along the floor, and nailed the board in. We were then allowed to get off.”. Taken with the rest of the chapter, this is an apt description of his dad’s entire personality. But he also brims with affection in his descriptions and recalls that his father said that when he was dying, they were to “take him to the vet.” After his death is when the reader first gets insights into Franny’s own curiosity about death; the author states that she made her observations while watching a beloved cat go through the process. Thus, she formed her opinions on death, and thus, Marc began watching iguanas.
The main conflict comes not from whether Franny will die, but how. She has three sons: Eric, Johnny and Marc, and a rather substantial extended family. Everyone but Eric, the only religious one among them, respects her wish to end her life on her own terms. They come to the conclusion that VSEAD is the only answer because they can’t get in trouble for killing her, and they can’t legally or morally make her eat or drink if it isn’t her will to do so. Later, Eric tells Marc that their mother asked if “he’s going through this fast, if she’s doing all this, because I wouldn’t let you and John do anything else. And she wants to know if we’re speaking, or will after she’s gone.”. He replies yes, and her response? “Well I am damned mad.”
The remainder of the book explores her thoughts and emotions in the week and a half before her passing, as well as how the family copes in the year following. No matter your opinion on Franny, or people who choose to engage in any sort of euthanasia, the book is fairly well written and worth a read.
RATING: 3 out of 4. The content was great as well as touching, and the writing isn’t bad, but it could use a good once over by an editor as well as some reorganizing for better chronological flow.
***
Buy "Life, Death and Iguanas" on Amazon
Latest Review: "Life, Death and Iguanas" by Marc Newhouse
